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I have been to partridge lakes today for the second round of the individual winter league and after missing the first match because i was a bit rough due to my wife’s birthday I was always going to be up against it to make the top ten like last year ,with the weather forecast due to be shocking with snow, sleet plus an easterly wind it was never going to fish well and i couldn’t afford to miss another of the rounds , so a good draw would obviously be an advantage as there is certain areas which threw up a good weight all over the winter months , but after arriving at the fishery a bit later than usually there wasnt a great deal left to go at in the bag of doom and peg 141 covey six was going to be my home for the next few hours which wasn’t great but also not the worst in the section either so i hoped that i might be able to get a bite or two during the next five hours .

After arriving at my home for the next few hours i decided to set up the usual f1 rigs minus the Dobbin rig because i figured that i had wasted too much time trying to make it work on my matches over the colder months ;

3ft rig for fishing maggots and i used a 4×10 Md slim pattern float with a spread bulk of number eleven stotz along my 014 garbo main line , attached to it was a six-inch 010 garbo hook length with a size twenty gamma black hook .

4ft rig for fishing maggots on both far and near slopes , i used a 4×12 Md slim pattern float with a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern along my 014 garbo main line and attached to it was a six-inch 010 garbo hook length with a size twenty gamma black hook .

Channel rig at six meters towards my left in the deepest water that i could find and i used a 4×12 Rw maggie float with a bulk plus dropper shotting pattern along my 014 garbo main line and attached to it was a six-inch 010 garbo hook length with a size twenty gamma black hook .

Bait for the day was really simple ;

1 pint of red maggots

1/2 pint fluro pinkies

1/2 pint micros

small tub of 4mm and 2mm expanders just incase .

When the all in sounded i started the match by trickling in half a dozen maggots at 4ft across to my marker and after about 20 minutes i had an f1 in the net which thankfully saved the blank , a further 20 minutes passed with just a missed bite to show for it , by now the wind was gradually increasing and the snow coming down quite thickly thinking back now i probably neglected my feeding during this time because my hands were beginning to crap up a bit . When the conditions began to improve i decided to put in another swim in at the same depth a meter further to the right and i pricked a fish straight away which came off on the way in, .but after a bit of a wait I had my next f1 in the net which was slightly deep hooked so no doubt i was not seeing a lot of the bites from the f1s , I then went nearly two hours without an indication despite setting up numerous new swims in 4ft going to both extremes of my peg .

I made the decision to switch to my 3ft rig and I was a bit reluctant to do this as i didn’t expect the f1s to be sat in this depth of water with all the snow and rain going in , i was kind of right because although i was back catching again they was only small chub and i was just glad to be putting something in the net , i had been putting in a few maggots down the track since the match started and with the last hour fast approaching i decided to drop on it hoping that a few fish might have settled on it but i never had a sign , with the anglers towards my left catching the odd f1 across I went back on to my 4ft swim and managed two more f1’s before the all out sounded , when the scales arrived I ended up with just 7lb which beat all the angler’s towards my right but unfortunately unlike on the first round they wasn’t in my section and I ended up fourth leaving me on nine points .

Not a great day but at least I caught a few fish on a very cold days fishing and there was a few weights lower than me today , i think i ended up 5th or 6th on the lake and it’s just that i was in the section which fished the better of the three on covey six .

I have been to partridge lakes today for the open match it was due to be on coveys 1-4 plus covey six and looking at the results during the week the latter one was the place to be because the original coveys had fished quite hard due to the very unsettled weather , as its nearly the middle of October and temps are up in the late teens not that I’m complaining still fishing in t-shirts at this time of year . On arrival to the fishery there was all the usual people in attendance getting reacquainted with the coveys as it was soon coming round to winter league time and I’m going to miss it this year , as i am concentrating on the Old Hough winter league that my mate is running but i will be back here for the Individual league in January , it turned out that there was seventy anglers in attendance just your typical weekend turn out for Partridge lakes . As I hadn’t been here for quite some time nearly three months to be exact so i expected to be well of the pace and i was still really looking forward to it even though I thought that it would be tough going , it soon came round to draw time so i joined the queue about half way and when it came to my turn for a dip in the bag of doom somethings never change as I pulled out my usual end peg which was 132 on covey six which does throw up a good weight every so often ( so no pressure then lol ) although it couldn’t be that good because i had been nowhere near it in the four years i had attended the opens on here as i had sat on most of the flyers .

After settling at my home for the next few hours i had the wind blowing into the margin as the scum had settled towards my left hand reed lined corner but i didn’t have any ripple as the bridge to my right and aerator rope directly in front had prevented the ripple reaching me , i decided to set up ;

4ft,3ft,2ft pellet rigs which i would use for chasing the f1s up and down the near slope and on all of them i used a 4×14 Md wire stemmed float with an inch spread bulk starting above the four-inch 012 garbo hook length which had a size 16 guru pellet attached .

I also set up a shallow rig set at 18 inch because i noticed a few fish swirling near the aerator and the bridge , i used a 4×10 Md mini mag float with a small bulk of shot above the six-inch 012 garbo hook length which had a size twenty guru lwg hook with a micro bait band .

Bait for the match was ;

Two pints of soaked micros

Two pints of soaked 4mm pellets

One pint of crushed expander

Small tub of 4mm and 6mm expanders

I didn’t take any maggots to my peg today which i felt might have been a mistake if I wanted to fish shallow because there was a few fish knocking at the aerator and pellets do not usually work on here for fishing up in the water , i also didn’t have anything bigger than 4mm but i would give it a try but half expected it not to work and when the all in sounded I flicked my shallow pellet rig at eleven meters towards the aerator , i gave my float a couple of slaps then my elastic came shooting out which took me a bit by surprise and I lost the carp as it took me under the rope , i did not want to start feeding anything just yet as it might affect my other lines but by rotating between here and the bridge I picked up some nice stamp F1+carp in the first ninety minutes before things started to slow down this was when i picked up my catty to try to get them competing but it had the opposite effect killing the swim completely .

When this swim died I went down both edges starting in four-foot and managed a few f1s+stockies feeding micros sprinkling them in through a small kinder pot i had a 4mm expander on the hook when i began suffering with line bites so i tried clumping in the feed to try to get the fish back on the deck , this worked for a while but it wasnt right so i picked up my three-foot rig to chase them further up the near shelf this got me another run of f1s and they was all a good stamp as well , it wasnt long before the problem of line bites returned but i couldn’t get into any shallower water as the scum had began to gather really badly in front of me . I plumbed a swim across to the point of the island at 14m but the wind was making it a problem to keep my rig still and i did manage a couple of fish but i was fighting a losing battle with the blustery conditions so i gave up on it for the time being although i would give it another try when conditions allow .

I put in a new line further along my left hand margin at the side of the scum but it was nearly four feet deep not ideal and after a couple of feeds i began catching again but the scum kept on gathering meaning that i had to keep adding sections to start new swims but at least it meant i did not have time to suffer with line bites , strangely my right hand edge towards the bridge never really got going and In the last hour I went back into four-foot at eleven meters either side of me which was the extremes of my peg and I managed to pick up the odd fish from each but it was slow going.

When the all out sounded I had managed 25 f1’s and five carp which went 64lb but i never felt in control of my peg today this was just enough to win the section and surprisingly I was also third on the lake , when I got back to the cabin it turned out that I was also third in the match which is my best performance here on these highly contested opens and it had been tough on covey 1-4, to be honest I felt that it could have been on a match winning peg if I had changed a few things and i am kicking myself for not getting the couple of extra pounds which would have placed me into the high flyer match next weekend but I’m happy with the result on my first visit in months.

Today was the penultimate round of the teams of four winter league at Partridge lakes and our 2+2 team was languishing in the bottom third of the league after some pretty average draws at best , but it was still a great experience fishing against some top-notch sponsored anglers and partridge regulars plus it gave me a chance to fish on the old lakes which no doubt helped me to compete in the individual winter league held here where i managed to finish 13th out of the 75 anglers .

At last the weather had showed signs of improving with temperatures rising slightly during the week although we had a cold wind to contend with today but as i arrived at the complex it was rather warm and i had to take a couple of layers off before i met up with the rest of the lads near the cabin , the captain decided to do the draw today and we all prayed for some decent pegs for a change but it looked like we had upset the draw gods as yet again we had some shocking pegs ;

Willow peg eight not great and 4th in section at best .

Spey peg eighteen can be good if the wind is blowing that way but surprise-surprise it wasnt .

Covey five 119 for the third time this winter league 4th in section at best .

Covey six 153 probably the worst peg in the section and my home for the next few hours .

After driving round to the back car-park near Holbar i started un loading my gear out the car and after speaking to a couple of Partridge regulars who was sat on the better pegs in my section , i went round to my peg and i had a reed lined far bank about 13m away but i also had a hill behind me which would make shipping back a bit awkward especially if i needed to chase the fish out of my peg , the wind was blowing from right to left but it shouldn’t cause much of a problem if it stayed the same but as usual when the all in sounded it increased dramatically.

As i didn’t really fancy my chances of getting good section points i choose to use todays contest to practice my pellet fishing and set up a couple of rigs to cover my options ;

Three foot rig which was about a foot away from the far-bank and surprisingly it plumbed up really nice because i managed to find three flat areas , i used a 4×12 malman roob which had an inch spread bulk starting above the short four inch 010 garbo hook length and i also set up a 4×10 rw maggie float which had a few number eleven stotz spread along the 014 garbo main line with a six-inch 010 garbo hook length .

Channel swim which i positioned at nine meters either side of me and i plumbed up to find a touch over five foot so i used a 4×14 malman roob which had an inch spread bulk starting above the short four inch 010 garbo hook length and i also set up a 4×12 rw maggie float which had a bulk plus two dropper shotting pattern along the 014 garbo main line with a six-inch 010 garbo hook length .

Bait for the day was ;

1 pint of soaked micros

1 pint of soaked 4mm pellets

1 pint of crushed expander groundbait

Small tub of 2+4mm expanders

I started the match by loose feeding half a dozen 4mm pellets along my left hand margin and then fed a golf ball of groundbait onto my left hand channel swim , before finally i could get fishing and shipped out to my far bank directly in front of me , after tapping in half a dozen micros i lowered my rig over the top and no sooner had my float settled than it dipped under as a small chub had taken a liking for my 4mm expander but at least i was off the mark , by being careful with my feeding and keeping the rig still directly over the top of it i managed to catch eight f1s in a forty minute spell before the bites began to tail off . I plumbed up another swim along the far bank towards my left and i fed a few micros while i was doing so , i let it settle for a bit and had a quick look onto my margin swim where i had been loose feeding six 4mm pellets but a bite less ten minutes had me going back across onto my new swim , i didn’t have to wait too long before i began getting indications and i had another run of five f1s which was no doubt down to the fact that i was being a bit more patient today than i usually am , i was just getting into the swing of things when i managed to stupidly loose a big f1 under my platform which was easy to do when I’m using the short shallow kits and this trashed my rig but it turned out to be a bit of a god send as it allowed me to change to a float with a slightly thicker tip because with the wind getting stronger i was struggling to see the little dinks on the bristle .

The disturbance of replumbing up killed my original across swim so i decided to put in another line towards my right which was further away from where i thought most of the fish would be because they had been situated in the bowl towards my left nearly all winter but i noticed that when i hooked an f1 it would go in the opposite direction towards peg 151 , after a couple of feeds i began catching fish again but they was only small stockies and i choose to rotate my two far bank swims picking up a couple from each before switching, it was noticeable that the bigger stamp was found on my left hand swim and if the wind relented enough i picked up my lighter 4×10 rig this got me a few nice f1s taking my hook bait just as my float settled but i couldn’t use it that often due to the conditions .

Before i knew it we was into the last forty minutes and i had a look on my track swim , i had twenty minutes earlier fed it with a golf ball of ground-bait no sooner had my rig settled than it buried and i managed five fish before the all out including a couple of ghosties . I really enjoyed my match today even though i was up against it from the start but i suppose thats what happens when your not under that much pressure , i hadn’t done a great deal of soft pellet fishing in the last few months and knew that i could improve on a few things today but i still managed to catch 34 f1s which went a shade over 40lb this put me third in section as peg 157 had 48lb and 155 had 50lb , yet again the team had another bad round getting 17 points which was only to be expected from our poor draw .

Having a weekend away from Partridge lakes my first in about three months as I’m fishing the charity match at cunneries fishery on Saturday and a team match Sunday at Widdows .

Today was the second round of the Partridge lakes winter league and after managing a 2nd in section on the previous round i hoped that i could build on that this week but after my performance on the teams of four i wasnt that optimistic , the weather during the week had been quite reasonable for the time of year with some settled temperatures at last but as per usual it was all change by the weekend as an easterly breeze had brought some cold weather and we was back down to minus temps during the night , it was forecast to be 2 degrees all day with some snow flurries and no doubt this would affect the fishing today but it would be the same for everyone so no point complaining .

I arrived at the fishery just before 830 and joined the queue for the rolling draw and this week fate decided to give me peg 151 covey six , i was in two minds of what to expect as everyone i spoke too said it wasnt the best but peg 149 had won the open the previous day and in my limited experience the fish don’t tend to stay in the same place when they have been caught , so i hoped that the f1s might have backed off in front of peg 150 and i did go to my home for the next few hours with a bit of confidence .

After settling in at my peg i had the cold easterly wind blowing into my right hand margin so far it wasnt that strong but it was forecast to get a bit stronger during the match , i set up my usual Partridge rigs which where ;

3ft maggot i used a 4×10 maggie float with a bulk plus two droppers spread along the 014 garbo main line and attached was a six-inch 010 garbo hook length my hook was a size 20 guru maggot hook .

4ft maggot i used a 4×10 maggie float with a bulk plus two droppers spread along the 014 garbo main line and attached was a six-inch 010 garbo hook length my hook was a size 20 guru maggot hook .

Dobbing rig i used a 0.3 matrix series three float with a bulk under the float + two droppers spread down the 014 garbo main line attached to it was a six-inch 010 garbo hook length my hook was a size 16 guru pellet hook .

Channel swim i had to use a slightly heavier float than i wanted as i only had 4×14 maggie floats deep enough in my box , my shotting pattern was a bulk plus two droppers spread along the 014 garbo main line and attached was a six-inch 010 garbo hook length my hook was a size 18 guru maggot hook .

On my side tray was pretty straight forward ;

2 pints of red and white maggots

1 slice of bread

When the all in sounded i began on my 4ft maggot rig directly in front of me and decided to take it easy with the feed in the conditions just tapping in four maggots every ten minutes , it took twenty minutes before i had my first indication which resulted in a big f1 although i did notice that it was slightly deep hooked in the mouth , even though i had my float just dimpling the water with the aid of some bristle grease and i must have been slightly over depth which is easily done when fishing on the far bank slope , on my next put in i brought my rig a touch closer too me and after a couple more feeds i had another f1 which took my maggot on the drop so for my next few drop-ins i kept laying my rig through the water trying to mimic the fall of the loose feed this resulted in a couple more fish hitting the net .

In the first hour i managed five f1s which on looking around was a lot better than anyone within eyeshot apart from peg 156 who was bagging and that was only to be expected from the lakes flyer as they had been balled up in that area in the last two months , with no more indications coming from my original swim i decided to set up a new line towards the point of the island by doing the same laying my rig in through the water as my loose fed fell i managed a further four fish in the next hour but yet again they backed off away from the feed , with nobody catching a great deal to my left i was reluctant to put in a line that way but i hadn’t many options left so i had too and unsurprisingly i had a barren thirty minutes , so i decided to pick up my dobbing rig too see if i could locate any fish either by getting bites or liners telling me there was fish in the area and after working my rig 14m to my left i could only manage a liner and a missed indication directly in front of me which just goes to show the lack of fish down that side of covey six .

With two hours of the match remaining i decided to drop onto my channel swim at 13m to my right and even though i knew that this was probably going to be my best area of the peg, i was reluctant to go on it sooner in case i pushed them out of reach , especially as the lad on 149 was already fishing at 16m and struggling to catch anything other than the odd f1 among the gudgeon . I fed a small kinder pot full of maggots then lowered my rig over the top of it and i let it fall on a tight line if any f1s in the area were watching it as the hook bait fell , it took about ten minutes before i had my first fish and i managed four in half an hour before they backed off so i added another section then started again , the same pattern emerged as i had another four f1s but they was only little stockies this time and with twenty minutes left i had to put the 16m section on , before the all out i managed another f1 plus a chub then i lost a fish which took me round the island just as the whistle sounded and i just hoped it wouldn’t cost me as apart from a couple of pricked fish that came off on the way in i hadn’t done a great deal wrong .

As i began packing up i could hear a few people moaning on how bad it had fished but in the conditions it was only to be expected as the f1s had no doubt shut up shop in certain areas , when the scales arrived at my peg i had 18lb to beat i was confident that i could better that as my 18 fish went 26lbs this got me the section , which puts me on three points after two rounds but there is still along way to go yet and just one bad draw can be the end of your challenge for top ten honors .

Next week i have a double-header as Saturday i will be at Bradshaw’s lake four for the teams of four club match then i am back at Partridge on Sunday for the 2+2 team where we are due a half decent draw for a change after having a couple of shockers recently , but overall it seems i have made a good start after the team sponsorship with Daiwa Adlington angling center .

Today was the first round of the individual winter league at Partridge lakes and after having to miss it last year due to other fishing commitments i was really looking forward to it , even if it meant i would be at the same venue till the beginning of April and i think that it is the longest i have stayed at one place in years but at least i would be local for a change , it would give me an opportunity to stay in touch with the moods of the fish and as the matches would be spread over the old lakes i shouldnt get too bored sitting on the same lakes .

After missing the last couple of weeks i was eager to get back on the bank and just hoped that i could draw a peg with a chance of a few bites because it had fished a bit iffy in places but it is winter after all , no doubt so did the other eighty anglers fishing the match and after my short drive to the complex i arrived just after 830 which put me towards the front of the rolling draw queue , when it came for my turn in the bag of doom i pulled out peg 167 on covey six which was the first one over the split and i had mixed views on it because the last time i fished Partridge lakes on the winter league team match i was on 169 were we all struggled for bites although the previous days open match a framing weight had been caught on 133 so there might be a few f1s in the area .

Before i began setting up i had a look at my peg to see if there was any signs of fish and although i didn’t see anything topping i did notice a few bubbles coming from the bottom of the far slope as i was sitting there it was like a who’s who of top Partridge anglers going past me into my section so i thought that i would be up against it getting good points today so i decided to have a nice uncomplicated match deciding to set up ;

Channel swim at eleven meters to my left near the start of the bowl because i was informed when i began plumbing up that i couldn’t go past the point of the island and as it was a touch over six-foot i used a 4×12 RW maggie float with a bulk plus two droppers shotting pattern spread along my 014 garbo main line attached to it was a six-inch hook length of 010 garbo with a size 18 guru maggot hook .

Four foot rig for fishing two lines across half way up the far slope and also towards the reeds to my left , i used a 4×10 preston maggot float with a bulk plus two droppers shotting pattern spread along my 014 garbo main line attached to it was a six-inch hook length of 010 garbo with a size 18 guru maggot hook .

Dobbing rig set at three-foot to start but i also had a three-foot length of line between pole tip+float so i could go deeper or shallower if required during the match , i used a 4×12 wire stemmed float which had a bulk at half depth then a couple of small droppers along my 014 garbo main line attached to it was a six-inch length of 010 garbo which had a size 16 guru maggot hook .

Bait for the day was ;

One pint of red maggots and handful of pinkies

One slice of bread for dobbin

A few micros

A bit off crushed expander ground-bait

A handful of 4mm expanders

I started the match by tapping in six maggots on both of my far bank swims and as i had felt a few fish knocking about while plumbing up in this area i hopped that i might be able to get the odd bite or two but i didn’t quite expect the start that i had although i didn’t add a great deal to my net , within ten seconds of my float settling i had an indication and a nice sized f1 in the net although it was hooked in the nose but in the next thirty minutes i lost four more fish , two of them with a hook pull at the net then a couple more also took me under the platform i put this down to the fact that i had recently changed to the short f1 kits and the fish were coming up a lot closer to me than i expected i was still trying to get the balance right when playing fish .

Unsurprisingly after losing those fish my bites stopped on my original swim and i had to replumb further to the left towards the point of the island at 14m , it took a couple of feeds before i began getting indications and not long after i had another f1 in the net by leaving my short number four on when playing the fish i seemed to have more control over what was happening , i managed a further four f1s on this line before they backed off and this was about the time the lad on peg 135 started fishing to the same point of the island . For the next hour i set up multiple swims towards my right in four-foot but strangely i never managed another sign going that way , i didn’t feel like the fish wanted to be in any shallower water so i went on to my top four line towards the left hand point of my margin and after tapping in half a dozen maggots i began getting a few indications , not long after i had a run of four f1s all of which were a nice stamp but no sooner had they turned up then they went and for the next forty minutes i was bite less after trying everywhere in my peg

As a last resort i picked up my dobbin rig and to be honest i didn’t expect this to work too well because i had talked to a few Partridge lakes regulars and they informed me that unless you was on a stack of fish then it would be a waste of time but anyway i decided to give it a go , i started at the point of the island and worked my way along the far bank a foot of the deck on my 4ft line but i didn’t have an indication until i got directly in front of me , in the next forty minutes i added five more fish to my net including a couple of small carp all of which were from the same area of my peg after catching those fish i struggled for bites and a change of punch or depth didn’t make any difference , i worked my way all along the far bank to both extremes without success and i put this down to the bright sunshine as it finally made its way out from behind the clouds .

I dropped onto my channel swim for a while without any signs and another rotation of my maggot lines also didn’t produce an indication but with thirty minutes of the match remaining it went cloudy again , so out came the dobbing rig but i had to resort to going tight to the far bank cover in two foot to get any bites and this produced a decent f1 plus a couple of big chub before the all out sounded , it called time on a rather confusing match and i feel like i got a bit lucky because there was definitely a few fish in the area so after a bit of a bad start i finally managed to add a few fish on maggots before catching a few more by dobbing bread , overall i managed second in my section with 23lb getting beat predictably by peg 171 who also finished second overall , i got my default section as well and so i started my winter league with two points lets hope i can keep the good draws coming to the end .

Going to be back at Partridge lakes for the next round of the teams of four winter league and i think it might be a bit of a grueller with the forecast drop in temperature so icebreakers at the ready .

I am back at Partridge lakes today for the third round of the teams of four winter league and the weather leading up to the contest had taken a turn for the worse with a drop in temperature although it still wasnt as cold as it should be for the beginning of December , the conditions had a big impact on the weights that had come out recently and it had also been frozen at the start of the week but on the open match Saturday it had been ice-free so i was unsure on how it would fish after all the melted ice water had gone in but i was looking forward to it nonetheless . On the trip down to the fishery i was surprised to see that the canal near me had frozen over and i was half thinking that i should turn back for the ice breaker but fearing that this would make me late i decided to head on but i still hoped that Partridge would be ice-free , but on arrival i feared the worst as majority of the lakes were covered on closer inspection it was just cat ice which was a relief because i didnt fancy smashing out any channels with my pole if it was any thicker and i then made my way to meet up with the rest of the team who where surprisingly in a confident mood as one of them had managed to win the open here on Thursday , it was soon time for the rolling draw to start and the team captain came back with some reasonable pegs for a change 121 covey five , 14 spey , 4 ribbon , i was on 171 covey six and this was an area that i had fished before at this time of year but struggled plus i was up against the lakes flyer 173 so i would have my work cut out for decent points today .

On arrival to my home for the next few hours most of the pegs had a covering of ice on them including those down the split were i was but luckily it was only cat ice so i managed to tap out a couple of channels through it quite easily with my cupping kit ,towards my left hand side i cut it out too eleven meters which was half way up the far bank slope at around four-foot deep and i didn’t really expect the fish to be in any shallower water , towards my right side i just put it half way about six meters which would be my channel swim and i was quite pleased with how things had turned out as i had left lots of ice for cover for the fish to hide in i was looking forward to giving it a good go because this type of fishing is something that i don’t do a lot of these days .

My main swims for today was going to be ;

Pellets in four-foot which was tight to the side of the ice and i used a 4×14 roob float which had an inch spread bulk above the four-inch 010 garbo hook length as this was a very positive rig it will show up the slightest touch on the float .

Maggots in four-foot i used a light 0.2 maggie float which had a bulk+two dropper shotting pattern and my main line was the usual 014 garbo which had a six inch 010 garbo hook length attached to it , this should enable me to grab the attention of any passing f1 as my hook bait fell in the bottom third of rig .

Channel in six-foot as it was relatively still on this swim as i was getting protection by the ice so i used an 0.3 maggie float which had a bulk+two dropper shotting pattern and my main line was the usual 014 garbo which had a six-inch 010 garbo hook length attached to it , this should enable me to grab the attention of any passing f1 as my hook bait fell in the bottom third of rig .

Bait for the day was ;

2 pints of red maggots with a handful of white mixed in

1 pint of micros

1 pint of crushed expanders

small tub of 4+2mm expanders

For a change i was set up with plenty time to spare but it was just ten minutes before the all in when the sun made its way from behind the far side trees which were in front of me and i just couldn’t see anything on my original swims so i hastily had to re plumbed up a couple of new ones on the opposite side of my ice channel which at least meant i could fish my four-foot rigs at the start , when the hooter sounded in the distance i began on my pellet line and i tapped in a thumbnail sized nugget of crushed expander groundbait as i didnt really know what to expect from the fishing today ,i then lowered my rig over the top of it but the glare from the sun was making things really awkward and with no bites coming in the first fifteen minutes i decided to risk tapping a few micros in to see if i could attract the attention of a passing f1 because the lad to my left had already caught two fish so there seemed to be some in the area ,although to be honest i couldn’t be sure if it worked or not as i was lifting into phantom bites because i was struggling to see my float with the low winter sun and on one of these lifts i think i foul hooked an f1 which i lost under the ice as i began shipping back.

Thirty minutes into the match i decided to go onto my channel swim because at least i was able to see my float but i did feel that there was a few fish present on the four-foot line so i hoped the sun might move enough for me to go back on my original swim soon , at this point of the contest the north easterly wind had started to get up as a consequence you could hear the ice cracking and it wasnt long before most of it from the margin to the channel had melted this had an impact on the fishing as everyone down the split where i was sitting remained bite less for almost two hours although i did see a couple of anglers catch from the opposite bank , during this middle spell of the contest i think that i might have over fed the peg because i was setting up new swims at four-foot along the far shelve and also tapping in maggots which i felt was the best depth to try to find a few f1s but it didnt work .

I was beginning to fear the worst with a blank being on the cards but when i dropped onto my channel swim i finally managed another bite and not long after i had my first f1 in the net , by kinder potting in six maggots every five minutes then lowering in my rig on a tight line i managed to add two more fish and i would only get an indication thirty seconds after my rig had settled so i was constantly laying my rig in through the water but after twenty minutes of activity the swim died on me , thinking about it now i really should have put more lines in at this depth but instead i went searching along the far bank at four-foot because that was the area that the other anglers seemed to be getting the most indications and i did manage a couple more f1s but it was noticeable that i would only be able to catch one fish on each swim , on reflection after the match i should have taken more pole sections out of my holdall so i could search the water in between the pegs because that is what the lad to my left did and he over took me in the last hour of the match , whereas i really struggled as i had to resort to going tight across with all my shot under the float by doing this i had a really slow fall of the hook bait i hoped that this might attract the attention of a carp but i only managed a chub .

When the all out sounded it called time on a rather frustrating match i really needed to be more active searching my peg more to find out were the f1s where located and I’m not sure if my silver fishing is having a detrimental effect on my f1 fishing , i knew that i had been beaten by the anglers either side of me but i hopped that i had managed to get the better of the others in my section and for a change i was one of the first to weigh in peg 173 managed 13lb , i had 6lb , peg 169 had 10lb , peg 167 had 9oz and peg 165 had 8lb which i felt was well within my grasp today so i ended up a disappointing 4th in section .

On the team front we had a reasonable day with 12 points despite my poor performance this put us mid division on the day but more importantly kept us in touch with the leaders in overall 7th position with 33 points but there is still a long way to go yet ,unfortunately i am going to miss the next round as i need to concentrate on my two remaining winter league matches at old hough where i need a couple of good results if i want to stay towards the top of the league but after that all my matches will be at Partridge lakes and i might even enter in the individual event if there is still places free .

Back at Partridge lakes today for another try at the open match and i was really looking forward to it because i felt that i had neglected this style of fishing , with autumn fast approaching i needed to get back in touch with the fickle feeding f1s even if the weather was forecast to be pretty dreadful today (constant rain) After booking on to the open where i found it would be across covey 1-4 plus covey 6 and i then grabbed a couple of pints of red maggots from the on site tackle shop before joining the queue for the draw as i fancied an early pick in the bag of doom to see if it would change my luck , it looked like i needed to try another way because when it came to my turn i pulled out peg 137 on covey six not the best of areas and with two better pegs in my section i would be up against it but as i was still getting back to grips with the venue there would be no point sitting on flyers just yet .

On arriving to my peg i fancied a nice easy match because it is all too easy to over complicate things and end up not sticking to your game plan but when i found out i had left my side tray at home and needed to borrow a bucket to use as a makeshift tray , my match turned even simpler because there was no way that i could risk using maggots in the rain without any cover as they would just end up going everywhere and it would be an all out pellet attack .

1 pint micros

2 pint 4mm

2 pint ground-bait

Small tub of 4mm expanders

Rigs for the day were;

Bottom of near slope after plumbing up i found around 5ft so i used a 4×14 roob float with an inch spread bulk above the four-inch 012 garbo hook length .

Three foot rig i managed to get a couple of flat spots along the far-bank and also in the margin towards my left so i used a 4×12 roob float with an inch spread bulk above the four-inch 012 garbo hook length .

With all the cold rain going in over night and during the day i also set up a four-foot rig for when the fish had dropped down into the deeper water , i used a 4×12 roob float with an inch spread bulk above the four-inch 012 garbo hook length .

When the all in sounded in the distance i began my match by using the three-foot rig along the far-bank at the side of the reeds and i tapped in a nugget of ground-bait to try to kick-start the swim but even after constantly trickling in some micros i failed to get any indications , i was thinking of trying further down the slope but before i did i decided to put in another swim at the same depth against another set of reeds and im glad that i did because it produced half a dozen f1s in thirty minutes before they backed off , so yet again i set up a new swim i basically followed them all along the far bank picking up a couple of f1s from each but they never really settled on one line for long and even though i was dithering in the cold rain the fish + water were quite warm so i never felt the need to try my four-foot rig .

With two hours of the match remaining and nothing coming from my across lines i decided to drop onto my top three swim where i had flicked half a dozen 4mm pellets every five minutes since the match started and i hoped that there might be some fish present but a bite less twenty minutes wasnt what i expected even though other anglers were catching on this line , my next area of my peg to try was my left hand margin although i had not primed this swim and i decided to fish it like i did on my far bank by starting with a nugget of ground-bait then trickling in some micros , it didn’t take too long before i began getting indications and line bites so i decided to go into shallower water about two foot deep , i was soon back catching the odd f1 but yet again they would only come in spells ( not sure i got my feeding right ) i found that by dropping in a small ball of ground-bait then lowering a rig in among it was the best way to get a bite and i even managed a couple of carp from this swim .

Before i knew it the all out sounded and called time on a very wet match although at times i really enjoyed it but I’m struggling to get to grips with my feeding but i am sure that the more i fish it the easier it will become , i ended up with nearly 50lb which was good enough for second in section behind peg 135 who had around 70lb from one of the more fancied pegs and the complex fished quite hard with ninety pounds making the frame which wasnt surprising in the conditions .

I am looking forward to getting back to Partridge lakes at the weekend but before that i have a trip to Weston pools tomorrow which has to be one of my favorite venues its just a shame that it isnt a bit closer or i would be there every week .